This invention relates to tampon applicators and, more particularly, to improved collapsible tampon applicators.
In the past, catemenial tampons have been applied and used either with or without applicators. For example, digital tampons are inserted into the vaginal cavity manually. Applicators, however, have been used in order to facilitate the insertion of the tampon and for the purposes of comfort and discretion. Generally, tampon applicators are composed of two separate concentric plastic or cardboard tubes in telescopic relationship to one another. The tube having a larger diameter cross-section is termed the outer sleeve, which generally retains the tampon plug, or absorbent element. The tube having a smaller diameter is the "inner sleeve" and is usually positioned within of the outer sleeve behind the tampon plug. The inner sleeve expels the tampon plug from the applicator during use.
Tampon applicators have been with the inner and outer sleeves separated into two pieces, such that the tampons require assembly when the woman uses the tampon. Although the packages are smaller prior to use, such packaging entails the disadvantage of requiring the consumer to assemble the product.
Some collapsible tampon applicator designs use a tampon plug composed of high density absorbent material having a mushroom-like dome shape at the end which is first inserted into the body. The inside surface of the outer sleeve of the tampon contains small nibs which protrude inward and hold the tampon plug in place while the inner sleeve is extended. This construction has several disadvantages. High density plugs are hard and uncomfortable to wear. Moreover, they do not absorb fluid as quickly as low density materials. Furthermore, a mushroom-shaped tampon plug cannot be replaced into the tampon applicator should the user err in dispensing the plug.
Thus, a tampon applicator is needed that is easy to use, discrete, comfortable and flexible enough to allow for the expansion of a low density tampon within it.
A tampon applicator of the collapsible design is known from German Utility Model 7,442,182, in which the retention element consists of a tongue pushed out from the body of the outer sleeve, which tongue is formed from plastic integrally with the outer sleeve and is brought into the desired bent position by corresponding heat treatment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,595 describes a tampon applicator in which a projection is connected to the inner wall of the outer sleeve. This projection grips under the longitudinal edges of a longitudinal slit in the inner sleeve of the applicator. The longitudinal slit extends at a distance between the front and rear end of the inner sleeve, so that the inner sleeve is held captively by the projection. The front end of the projection lies against the rear end of the tampon, so that the inner sleeve can be withdrawn out of the outer sleeve in order to transfer the tampon into the outer sleeve.
An object of this invention is to improve a tampon applicator of the known generic type mentioned at the beginning in such a way that the transfer of the tampon out of the inner sleeve into the outer sleeve is ensured when the tampon applicator is utilized, and at the same time a simple and thus economic manufacture of the tampon applicator is ensured, which permits a mass production of the tampon applicator.
By expedient matching of the form of the retention element and of the longitudinal slit in the inner sleeve of the product of this invention, it is thus achieved that the retention element is mechanically arrested so that its contact position at the end of the tampon is exactly defined and can be maintained permanently. This ensures that, although the retention element can give way outwards when the inner sleeve is charged with a tampon, it then returns reliably into its contact position at the end of the tampon, and a reliable transfer of the tampon out of the inner sleeve into the outer sleeve is at all times ensured by the mechanically secured engaged position of the retention element. The simple design of the components of the tampon applicator, and the possibility of assembly it easily and quickly ensures an economic mass production of the tampon applicator.
The locking mechanism of the tampon applicator of this invention preferably consists of mutually overlapping parts of the retention element and at least one of the two sleeves, the parts overlapping one another in the unlocked state and gripping under one another in a locking manner in the locked state. Moreover, the invention permits an optional reinforcement of the retention element with respect to the thickness of the wall of the outer sleeve, so that the retention element itself exhibits a high bending or buckling strength.
In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, the retention element may be locked with the inner sleeve, the locking part of the retention element consisting of a detent plate which is dimensioned wider than the longitudinal slit in the inner sleeve. In this case, the detent plate is connected to the rear part of the outer sleeve so as to be bendable. The rear part of the outer sleeve is expediently stiffened by an external rib which extends between a rear, toroidal grip and the rear end of the through-opening of the outer sleeve. The retention element is advantageously formed as a continuation of the reinforcing rib.
Two longitudinal segments in the rear part of the longitudinal slit in the inner sleeve may be dimensioned narrower than the shank of the retention element, the longitudinal segment lying between the two longitudinal segments having a normal width and receiving the shank of the retention element in the outer sleeve in the pushed-in position of the inner sleeve.
Spreader strips may protrude inwards from the inside of the parallel longitudinal edges of the rear part of the longitudinal slit and reinforce the spreading away of the detent plate of the retention element into the interior of the inner sleeve.
The longitudinal slit in the inner sleeve extends into a resilient lip at the front end of the inner sleeve, this lip being dimensioned wider than the through-opening for the retention element in the outer sleeve in comparison to further lips extending with regular spacing over the periphery of the front end of the inner sleeve.
In a second embodiment of the invention, the retention element extends in the unlocked state from a toroidal grip, forming the bending axis of the retention element, at the rear end of the outer sleeve freely forwards outside a through-opening in the outer sleeve paraxially to the latter and has in its base region a detent plate as the locking part which interacts with rim parts of a through-opening at least in the outer sleeve as the other locking part. In this case the detent plate of the retention element may advantageously be dimensioned longer, but narrower, than an associated widened cut-out of the through-opening in the outer sleeve. The shoulders of the detent plate and the relatively, shorter length of the cut-out and the outer sleeve overlap one another in the unlocked state; in the locked state the shoulders of the detent plate grip under the shoulders of the outer sleeve with locking effect. The shoulder faces lying opposite one another are expediently designed to be slanted. A detent tongue extending forwards from the detent plate, and extends into the interior of the inner sleeve through the longitudinal slit thereof.
In the case where it is desirable to fix the inner sleeve essentially non-displaceably with respect to the outer sleeve before the tampon is inserted into the tampon applicator, the longitudinal segment, extending forwards from the cut-out for the detent plate, of the longitudinal slit in the inner sleeve may be dimensioned narrower than the detent tongue of the retention element of the outer sleeve, in such a manner that the inner sleeve is held friction-tightly against the detent tongue of the outer sleeve. In other circumstances it may also be desirable to dimension the longitudinal slit of the inner sleeve wider than the detent plate of the retention element along its entire length.
It is usually advisable to provide, in a manner known per se, the tampon applicator, both at the front end of the inner sleeve and also of the outer sleeve, with lips which are directed towards the central longitudinal axis of the sleeves and which are outwardly arcuate. In this case, a particularly advantageous measure consists in providing the lips of the inner sleeve with front lips which, in the position where the inner sleeve is pushed into the outer sleeve, grip under the front end of the lips of the outer sleeve. This ensures that the tampon can only be pushed out of the applicator if it has previously left the inner sleeve completely.
The invention is explained in greater detail below with reference to the diagrammatic drawings of two exemplary embodiments of a tampon applicator, in which: